"I was in Waco visiting family and found out about a race to benefit the scholarship fund at my alma mater, La Vega High School," said Mike Csikos. "I thought it would be fun to support my school and run through my old stomping grounds in Bellmead."
Like any number of us would do, Sunshine found himself on the start line Saturday, October 7 for the La Vega High School Foundation 5K.
"I learned that the La Vega Pirate Foundation gives out over $40,000 annually in scholarships and educational support for deserving students," he added.
Given that the school's cross country athletes were a week away from their district meet, Mike realized that "you just never know what type of field is going to show-up for these smaller events."
He said that it's been a long time since he's run a 5K and had no expectations on his performance other than to give a good steady effort.
And he did so -- better than everyone else.
"I was able to lead the pack," Mike said. "It was so cool to have a police escort which made me feel like an "elite" runner for 3.1 miles. I ran a 22:19, finished in first and loved every minute of it."
Even better for Mike was that he had the opportunity to visit with some of his teachers and former classmates, which he said was nice.
"It was a good morning of why I love to run," he added.
In keeping with the charitable theme, we follow Greg Nettleton to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and his debut effort at the 26.2-mile distance.
"The Chicago Marathon was harder than I expected," he said. "But I ran and finished for Diana Nettleton raising over $4,000 to help Finish MS."
Some of our Volte friends made the trip to the Windy City too.
Mary-Ellen Wilderman-Hay finished her third marathon of 2017 with a personal best of 3:39:40 -- and her second BQ of the year.
One of our endurance community's true gentlemen, Ironman John Laskowski of Team Strive, Outrival Racing and now Mach 5 Racing, notched a marathon personal best as well with a showing of 3:59:10.
Rebecca Hughes finished in 4:10:12 while Ernest "Bartenderx" Oropeza stopped the clock in 4:43:19.
A couple of our athletes were at other marathons than Chicago on Sunday, October 8 and added to their marathon counts in different states.
Steven Lopez picked up state #16 by finishing the Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 5:57:19.
"Pennsylvania is in the books!" said Steven. "Very humid. Just jogged this one and enjoyed the fall colors."
A little further to the northeast found Derek Bailey punching out state #20 in Rhode Island.
In Portsmouth was the Amica Newport Marathon where Derek finished in 3:27:47.
"Trash fire. Don't go to a trash fire," was his only comment.
Some of us, though, would set a landfill ablaze for a time like that!
In all seriousness, we've all had that race - or two - were it just wasn't our day, but we add it to our toolbox of experiences to draw on at some other time.
And there are other times that we know it maybe isn't the wisest thing to race, while on the back end of an illness (your scribe speaking from experience).
However, there are reasons it's important to take a measured risk and compete.
That's so we not let teammates down.
If anybody in the last six weeks had the right to take a pass, it would be Amanda Cruise.
But Amanda had a pair of teammates that had been preparing for quite some time for last Sunday's Kemah Olympic Distance Triathlon Relay.
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| Still looking tough despite taking it easy is Amanda Cruise. (Photo courtesy of Bayou City Race Series) |
And Amanda helped deliver a first place relay team victory.
Cruise-Zajac-Brokish covered the 1,500-meter swim (38:04), 40-kilometer bike (1:09:52) and 10-kilometer run in 2:31:20 with Amanda making her leg happen in 39:14.
Then nearly 20 Voltes and a handful of our friends made the trek out west for the second annual Texas 10 Cypress.
Brayden Park was the first of our runners across the line in 29:45 in the 5K.
If that time seems a little long, it is -- as runners missed a turn and ended up with a bit of bonus mileage going more than 3.1 miles.
Letty Gonzalez completed the unkown distance in 40:38, taking second place in her age group to go with Brayden's first place performance.
Gregg Harris crossed the five-mile finish line first with a 37:49 first place age group showing.
Brian Hanyzewski did so in 47:50 while Gabby Brockett, Tammy Ninke (:44) and Tabitha Young (:46) all finished within a second or two of each other in 1:07:43.
Tabitha picked up $50 in the post-race cash drawings while our friends from Huntsville Ray and Diana Sarno both completed the five-mile race in 1:05:16.
A pair of first-place age group and third-place age group finishes were won in the marquee 10-mile race.
Ninth overall, Rip Reynolds was fast at the front in 1:09:55 for one of the two first place efforts while Kimberly Simmons - seventh among all females -- secured the other one in 1:18:50.
Jerritt Park and Keri Amador were the third place winners in 1:17:06 and 1:22:40, respectively.
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| Focused and determined was Keri Amador, which netted her a third place age group placement. (Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer) |
Laura Hanyzewski kept things steady with a 1:34:05 finish while Katie Gill bettered her previous 10-mile best by a minute and five seconds with a 1:52:50 showing -- beating last year's mark that she had at Memorial Hermann Ten For Texas.
Desna McDonald and Lisa Johnson smiled all of the way to finishes of 2:01:42 and 2:03:11 while Alfredo Gonzalez stoicly ran the distance in 2:20:50.
Volte friend Michael Menster was first in his age group in 1:07:45, while Mary Garcia and Ken Johnson ran in 1:28:41 and 2:23:13, respectively.
Cole Harris and Brayden Park closed the morning by going 1-2 in the Lil' Texas Kids 1-mile race with an estimated finishing time of about 7 minutes even. The two were five seconds apart as Brayden followed Cole across the finish line.
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